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MEMBER DIARY

The tactics that the Democrats used in 2012 regarding the Bush tax cuts is the same strategy being deployed by the Republicans in 2013 and Obamacare. Yet this time around, the Republicans are getting vilified for it.

Let’s get this straight. In 2012, the Republicans wanted to permanently extend the “Bush tax cuts” for all. These cuts had been temporarily put in place in 2001 and 2003 and were renewed in Congress in 2010, making it the “law of the land” for roughly ten years.

However, the Democrats refused to have consider an across-the-board clean tax cut for all. Instead, they insisted on an exception. They demanded that Congress raise the rates on the high incomes earners by letting the tax cuts expire for them, and pushed for only extending the cuts on the lower earners. Their rationale? A revenue raiser. (Those high earners need to “pay their fair share”).

Then, the Democrats argued that if the Republicans did not agree to their request, all the tax cuts would lapse and it would be the Republicans who would be responsible for also raising the rates on the other 99%.

Fadst forward to late September 2013. The shoe is on the other foot and the Republicans make a demand about a law that has yet to go into effect (vs the decade-old tax cuts), using the same methodology as the Democrats did less than a year ago. And now the Republicans are the bad guys for insisting on a delay for one year on the healthcare law for which 100% are affected.

Now that the government is shut down, the Republicans are offering clean CRs areas by area. Yet the Democrats are refusing every bill. They insist that it be a Clean CR for everything — the same way the Republicans were lambasted for insisting that the tax cuts should be made cleanly and permanently for everyone.

What’s worse, the same argument that the Democrats made about raising the rates on the 1% (to raise revenue) is the exact same effect that a one-year Obamacare delay could give our economy. It has been estimated by the CBO the CBO that such a delay would have saved $35 billion in over ten years. How is this not a good thing this time around? Folks, a double standard is in effect.

Isn’t this current shutdown the epitome of hypocrisy? The Democrats insisted on shutting down the government to prove it could run healthcare. And they did so on the backs of you and me. The Republicans need to continue to follow the Democrat’s example and resolve in 2012 and hold their ground on this monumental issue.